Cape Cod Life, Annual 2017 | capecodlife.com

When Nantucketers rode the rails

Cape Cod Life  /  2017 Annual /

Writer: Joe O'Shea

When Nantucketers rode the rails

Cape Cod Life, Annual 2017 | capecodlife.com

Cape Cod Life  /  2017 Annual /

Writer: Joe O'Shea

Railway echoes

When Nantucketers rode the rails, Annual 2017 Cape Cod Life | capecodlife.com

Watercolor by Mia Bluestein • Grade 11, Falmouth High School

Despite the original railroad’s spotty history, many contemporary Nantucketers would welcome rail service back to the island. The Grey Lady’s recent property boom, which has seen the price of modest-sized homes spike into the millions, has also seen a proportionate boost in auto traffic. “It would be great to have a train on the island today so we wouldn’t have all these bloody cars,” says Libby Oldham, a Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) research associate.

Even though nearly a century has passed since the last train raced across The Moors in 1917, bound for ’Sconset, there are echoes of the Nantucket Railroad all over the island—if one knows where to look.

The “loudest” echo sits at the base of Main Street, where The Club Car Restaurant and Bar has operated since 1977. When the railroad folded in 1918, an old Pullman car was left alongside the train station. The car was converted into Allen’s Lobster Grill and Diner, which served locals and tourists for more than four decades before the current ownership team bought the old station and car.

The NHA also boasts a substantial collection of Nantucket Railroad artifacts, most notably the bell from Dionis, the railroad’s first engine. Named for the wife of Tristram Coffin, one of the island’s early settlers, Dionis proudly served for about two decades before being taken off the line.

The remaining echoes of the far-out island railroad are a bit more subtle, according to Saperstein, a Rhodes Scholar who taught mining engineering at Penn State and the University of Kentucky. “For instance, look at the gentle curve of the Easy Street bulkhead,” says Saperstein, a commanding presence as he saunters along the Nantucket waterfront. “Trains can’t take hard turns, so the route from Steamboat Wharf takes a soft turn along the water.”